Fresh off of its record-breaking four Golden Globes nominations – the most ever for an animated film – “The Wild Robot” has officially taken the lead in the Best Song race at the Oscars. An impressive 100% of our editors and 96% of experts think the standout track “Kiss The Sky” will be nominated come the official announcement on Jan. 17, according to our current combined odds.
At the beginning of the month, “Emilia Pérez” led the category with “El Mal,” but the acclaimed track from the animated movie has been gaining momentum just as awards season kicks into full gear. “Kiss The Sky” is performed by Maren Morris and written by the team of Delacey, Jordan K. Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Morris, Michael Pollack, and Ali Tamposi.
The song is not only a beautiful anthem of self-empowerment and facing fears, but it also serves as one of the emotional high points in a pivotal scene in the film. The movie centers on Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), a humanoid robot that crash-lands on a wild island and becomes a maternal figure to a gosling, Brightbill (Kit Connor). Her main task becomes preparing Brightbill for his first migration before winter descends. “Kiss The Sky” is the main musical accompaniment to the montage of Roz going above and beyond to make sure that the young bird succeeds, even though it means leaving her behind.
As of this writing, our experts, editors, and users expect “Kiss The Sky” to lead a Best Song lineup rounded out by “El Mal,” “The Journey” written by Diane Warren from “The Six Triple Eight,” “Mi Camino” from “Emilia Pérez,” and “Like a Bird” from “Sing Sing.” Both of those songs from “Emilia Pérez” broke through with Globes nominations.
In an interview with Gold Derby, composer Kris Bowers said that the training and migration montage in which “Kiss The Sky” is featured “really embodied so much of the collaborative approach” to making “The Wild Robot.” As the film’s composer explains, the sequence was longer than the run time of the song and needed additional scoring. He shares, “I asked if Maren and the songwriters would give me the stems to the track, which songwriters often don’t want to give to a composer,” but this team was “so generous to give me all of the different tracks so I could work with my music editor to cut together what I wanted that song to be throughout the six-and-a-half-minute sequence.”
Since the Best Song category was introduced in 1935, many animated films have won, dating back 84 years to the 1940 ceremony, when “Pinocchio” prevailed for “When You Wish Upon a Star.” Disney won again in 1947 for “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” from “Song of the South.” It would be a long wait for another champion, when in 1989, “The Little Mermaid” won the first of many trophies for Alan Menken and Howard Ashman during the golden era at Disney; they also proved victorious for the title song from “Beauty and the Beast” in 1991. Menken won with lyricist Tim Rice for “A Whole New World” from “Aladdin” in 1992, and he won once more with lyricist Stephen Schwartz for “Colors of the Wind” from “Pocahontas” in 1995. Menken’s fellow EGOT Elton John carried the torch in between in 1994, winning for “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” from “The Lion King” with Rice.
Schwartz – who is eligible this year for his film score for “Wicked” – won in 1998 for “When You Believe” from “The Prince of Egypt.” Phil Collins won a year later for “You’ll Be In My Heart” from “Tarzan.” Randy Newman had success twice with two Pixar films: “If I Didn’t Have You” from “Monsters Inc.” in 2001 and “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3” in 2010. Of course, “Frozen” dominated everyone’s consciousness with “Let It Go,” which won in 2013 for duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and EGOT Robert Lopez. Most recently, they took home the award again in 2017 for “Remember Me” from “Coco.”
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